Microsoft Services Including Outlook, Skype, Xbox Live Hit by Outage

Mario Tama/Getty Images7 Mar 2017

(Reuters) — A variety of online services from Microsoft Corp suffered outages for several hours on Tuesday across Western Europe and the Eastern United States, according to the company’s technical support sites.

Among the services affected were Microsoft’s email service Outlook.com, its Office 365 online software, Xbox Live gaming service and Skype, according to their official websites.

An Office 365 technical support site said the issue, which prevented some Outlook.com users from gaining access to their mailboxes, began around 1057 GMT on Tuesday.

“We’re investigating an issue in which some users may be unable to access or use Outlook.com services or feature,” a notice on the Office 365 site said (here). Later, as the service returned, it said “Everything is up and running.”